Tonye Jekiri joins Partizan Belgrade to replace Tyrique Jones, who left for Olympiacos

Tyrique Jones (2.06m, 28 years old) is officially a new Olympiacos player. The American center left Partizan Belgrade after the Greek club agreed to pay his buyout clause.

✍🏾Η ΚΑΕ Ολυμπιακός ανακοινώνει την απόκτηση του @TyriqueJones_. Ο Αμερικανός σέντερ υπέγραψε με την ομάδα μας συμβόλαιο συνεργασίας διάρκειας 2.5 ετών.#OlympiacosBC announces the signing of Tyrique Jones. The American center has signed a 2.5-year contract with our team.…

— Olympiacos B.C. (@Olympiacos_BC) January 5, 2026

Strong statistics despite Partizan’s struggles

After a tense situation in Belgrade, Jones had attracted attention from several European clubs. While Maccabi Tel Aviv showed interest in the former Xavier (NCAA) player’s profile, the Israelis never intended to pay the buyout clause demanded by Partizan according to Eurohoops sources.

This reluctance opened the door for Olympiacos, which managed to finalize the transfer. The Piraeus club signed Jones until the end of the 2027-2028 season, securing the services of an experienced player with 83 EuroLeague appearances between Anadolu Efes and Partizan. There, Jones will reunite with his former teammate Frank Ntilikina, who like him left Partizan for Olympiacos earlier this season.

Tonye Jekiri to return to EuroLeague

This season in EuroLeague, Jones averaged 10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks in 17 games for Partizan. In the Adriatic League, he posted 5.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1 assist in 10 games. Recently, he had been booed by Partizan fans following coach Zeljko Obradovic’s departure. An altercation with a supporter even occurred after the heavy EuroLeague defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The Hartford, Connecticut native brings an interesting resume including the 2025 Adriatic League championship title and Finals MVP trophy of that same competition. He had also been named Turkish league MVP in 2023 and Italian league leading rebounder in 2022, during his seasons with TT Ankara and Pesaro.

To replace Jones, Partizan Belgrade has already identified his successor in Tonye Jekiri, recently released by CSKA Moscow. The Nigerian discovered EuroLeague in 2019 with ASVEL before playing for Baskonia (2020-2021), Kazan (2021-2022) then Fenerbahçe (2022-2023). Since then, he was once again Livio Jean-Charles’s teammate at CSKA Moscow.

This transfer comes as Olympiacos (11-7) occupies seventh place in EuroLeague, while Partizan (6-13) shares last position with five other teams, including Paris and ASVEL.